One of the problems with living in London is the sheer number of times in a week that you find yourself invited to the pub – or, indeed, to go out more generally. Not that I’m complaining, you understand; just making an observation, and one which may explain why, despite a week off work, I still feel like I need a holiday.

On Friday (although, having been off work all week I kept mistaking it for Saturday), I went to The Ship and Shovell near Charing Cross to meet Gordon, stalwart organiser of Scottish blogmeets and webmaster of the temporarily out of action Scottish Blogs.

Gordon being as well-connected as he is, there were rather a lot of bloggers in attendance which put me to shame for neglecting this place, and prompted me to get around to writing some of the posts I’ve had in the back of my mind for weeks (if not months).

I did my best to memorise who everyone was and which blogs they wrote, so I apologise to those I’ve inevitably missed. There was Tom Reynolds from Random Acts of Reality (and here’s his book, Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance); the eponymous Diamond Geezer; Gert from Mad Musings of Me; Adrian from sevitzdotcom (I read his latest blog posts on his lovely iPhone); Graybo from grayblog; Ann from pixeldiva; and Anna from little.red.boat. I’m at least two short from that list but hopefully Gordon will provide some links himself.

(Update: Thanks to Gordon I can make my apologies to Hydragenic, bob’s yer uncle, and the girl with a one-track mind, another one of those clever people with a book.)

Several new blogs there I didn’t know before and will be adding to my feed reader.

And while resolving to write more on here, I’ll also be resolving to log in to that more often too.

I have a couple of meme tags still outstanding, one of which needs addressing before midnight and so I’d best get it done.

Jo off of Jo’s Jottings tagged me with Iain Dale’s Eight for 2008 meme. So with world peace and Prime Minister Nick Clegg taken as read, here are my 8 wishes for next year:

1. That the fourth series of <DOCTOR.WHO> will be at least as good as the third; that the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be at least as good as the first; and that the new series of Torchwood will be better than the first (and I’m sure it will).

2. That the Lib Dems get good results in the London elections and the English and Welsh local elections in May.

3. That I’m able to find enough spare time to make some progress on various projects currently sitting on the back burner.

4. That in the light of its inability to handle personal data securely the Government abandons the illiberal, costly, and technically monstrous identity database.

5. That I maintain a reasonable record playing Scrabulous on Facebook and at some point win a game of Settlers of Catan.

6. That the majority of my commuter trains into London are on time (December’s score: 0%).

7. That a sensible Democrat wins the US Presidency.

8. That I lose some more weight, although ideally not through amputation, decapitation or any sort of wasting disease.

Given that it’s December 31st, I’ll not tag on. Happy New Year!

Über-blogger Alix Mortimer has tagged me with a meme honouring the launch of the Campaign for Gender Balance Blog Awards.

I’m delighted that the awards have been set to up. Women are shockingly under-represented in the Lib Dem blogosphere: around a year ago, there were more gay Lib Dem bloggers than female ones, and even now the two groups are roughly neck-and-neck. This year has seen a marked rise in the number of women contributing to Lib Dem Blogs, and hopefully their examples will encourage more female members to starting blogging.

I will shortly head off and submit my nominations – please do the same – but the meme first requires me to make some lists of threes…

Best Blog by a Woman Lib Dem nominations

I’m going to pick, Mary Reid, a good blog by a local councillor (and Liberal Democrat Blog Awards double winner), and Jo Anglezarke, who’s one of several entertaining new women bloggers, and has thankfully switched from MySpace.

Somewhat embarrassingly since Alix tagged me, my absolutely favourite blog by a woman Liberal Democrat is The People’s Republic of Mortimer. It’s a joy to read, gorgeously written and generally marvellous, making Alix a welcome and refreshing addition to the party blogosphere.

Best Blog post by a Woman Lib Dem nominations

I’m going to be terribly unhelpful and shy off doing this. There are too many blog posts in the world and trying to pluck something from my memory is sure to favour the past two weeks (or days, more likely). I obviously should’ve been making a list as I read them…

Best Blog by a Woman Non-Lib Dem nominations

Over the last year, I have, to my shame, complete lost touch with the non-LibDem blogs I used to read (apologies to you all). This is something to rectify if I can find time in the new year, maybe with a new feed reader. I’ll therefore rummage around my blogroll for three worthy non-LD lady bloggers:

Rullsenberg Rules, whose proprietor Lisa has excellent taste in television; TV’s Emma Kennedy, who’s been in some excellent television; and the remarkably obsessive Boots and Bonnets, which in no way reflects my own lack of interest in costume drama.

Three living women who should blog

Hmm… We need more female Lib Dem bloggers and more blogging peers, so the interesting and knowledgeable Baroness must be one. Liz Sladen would no doubt be a hoot, although there’s probably not much she could write about The Sarah Jane Adventures while making them. Finally, and not very originally, it would be fascinating to read the Queen’s blog.

Now I need to tag some more bloggers. Let’s say, Alex, Gavin, Stephen, Nick and Gareth. Da rules are on James G’s site. Thank you please.

I’ve been tagged with several memes while struck with the flu. The easiest one to fulfil – I’m not scared of the Priest, but I don’t want the Don coming after me – is to show my desktop.

Although I read the posts that tagged me on my phone, my laptop desktop is easier to grab, so here you go.

You may notice that it is not as, er, barren as some. And that’s an imaginary South Korean bobsleigh team in the background.

Update: I have belatedly noticed that Rob Knight tagged me too. Alas, my desktop isn’t as geeky as he predicts, but then you can’t really walk around with two screens with a laptop. Unless they build screens that fold out – that would be quite cool…